Year 1 Day 113 2017 In Review December 31 2017

Today is the end of our first year in our RV. It did not start on January 1, 2017 as, at that time, we were still living on our sailboat, Leu Cat. We spent 2/3 of the year living on Leu Cat until we sold it on Aug 30. During that period, we sailed from Grenada, which is just north of South America, up through the West Indies visiting such islands as Saint Vincent and the Grenadines, Guadeloupe, Sint Maarten, St. Croix, St. Thomas, St Johns and finally returning to Sint Maarten in hopes of sailing across the North Atlantic to the Mediterranean. During this time, we were visited by our dear friends, Portia and Steve and then by Valerie and Joe. We also spent a week with our blog friends, Rich and Brent, who lived on St Croix and had so graciously invited us to stay with them.

When we returned to Sint Maarten we retrofitted Leu Cat in preparation of making our North Atlantic crossing. Once we finished the retrofit, we watched the weather and waited, waited and waited some more for a decent weather window to make a safe crossing. Alas, it was not to be due to the many, many horrific storms that swept the North Atlantic, making a safe passage problematic.

The thought of spending a third straight year in the Caribbean in hopes of making a crossing to the Mediterranean in 2018 was not appealing so we decided to sell Leu Cat and return to living on land. This was not an easy decision since we loved Leu Cat so much, as well as the wonderful sailing lifestyle we had lived for the last 10 years. Nevertheless, we felt it was time to move on and the decision was made.

In August, we found buyers who loved Leu Cat and we believed would take good care of her. They were going to sail Leu Cat to her new home in North Carolina in February 2018 when the sailing conditions would be good for such a passage. We even agreed to help crew her during that passage and assist them in getting to know the various systems that made Leu Cat such a great boat.

Unfortunately, it was not to be because Hurricane Irma hit St Maarten in early September, destroying the island with winds up to 225 mph. Along with the island, Irma also destroyed hundreds of boats, including Leu Cat. While we no longer owned Leu Cat, we were devastated since she was our home, our island of safety as we circumnavigated the world and was part of our family for so many years.

Shortly after selling Leu Cat we bought LeuC, our 40-foot Tiffin Allegro Bus and moved on board during the first week of September. Since then, we have driven about 6,000 miles, touring the southwest and visiting family and friends along the way. Our tour took us from Mesa, Arizona, where we bought LeuC, to Tucson, then to New Mexico, and up to Denver, Colorado. We returned to Tucson and then continued on to Southern California, up to Sacramento, California, back to Tucson and finally, returning to California to spend the Christmas holidays in the San Francisco Bay area.

We have visited with each of our three children and their families, seen many friends that we had not seen in years and met many other R/Vers’ along our way. This was all done during the last few months of 2017. Whew!

As you can see, it has been a very hectic year for us, with many, many significant changes. But it has also been very rewarding year meeting new people and making new friends.

We are in the process of planning our 2018 travel year which will have a heavy emphasis on touring the South, the East and the Midwest. With luck, we may make it up to Canada and visit some of our old cruising friends who now live there. Time will tell…

Our Past Life

If you would like to read about our 10-year adventure sailing around the world on our lovely sailboat, Leu Cat, CLICK HERE

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My Brother’s Are Explorers Too!

Dave’s Dad and Mom were very adventuresome and instilled the wanderlust into his soul. They did the same for his older Brother, Don, and his youngst brother, Del. Follow their adventures by clinking on Don’s blog CLICK HERE or Del’s website:CLICK HERE